Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Check out the new blog layout! I was doing some other "administrative" tasks and decided I wanted to make a little change. I hope it is still easy to read and navigate - comments are welcome.

I also re-did the recipe index. It was quite hard to navigate and required lots of scrolling. Some funky things also happened with the HTML and it would have been a pain in the ass to try to fix manually, so I just started fresh and created a new index. I hope this one is easier to manage.

And finally, I also updated the J's Recommended Reads post, it was out-of-date and also needed a bit of editing.

Needless to say, lots of work has been going on behind the scenes here at Veg*n Cooking.

It has been quite a week or so too with the arrival of Butters. Things are slowly moving along, but the "peace" between the cats is tentative. And Butters is a kitten - all he wants to do is play and whenever the other cats come to try to sniff him, he bats at them and changes the whole mood entirely. He is kind of a punk though - he has a tendency to bite, which we are hoping we can discourage him from doing (it hurts, the little shit!) and he bothers the other kitties when they try to go to the bathroom and that is frustrating too. But he's also really sweet. He likes t have his belly and chin rubbed, he lets you hold him and get in his face, and he is really soft.

Admittedly, he has been far more interested in Gabby and Nermal than Brett or I and I am just having to deal with that at the moment and try not to smother him in love like I want to. :-)

When Butters was found, he was starving in a dumpster - on his vet forms they called him "Orange Dumpster Kitty" at first. When I read that on the papers the first day we had him, it made me tear up a little bit - it is pretty sad, BUT he was lucky. In the little over a week he has been here, he has put on weight, his coat looks shiner and thicker, his coloring is brighter, and he is active and playing. Hopefully things stay on the up and up and the little guy is okay. He was found during an unreasonably cold time here in Missouri - it is hard to believe her survived. But he made friends at the vets office, they sent him with food, bowls, a bed, toys, medicine, all sorts of stuff. It is amazing what a cute kitten can do to a person. :-) He is gaining weight incredibly quickly. I had taken to calling him "Butter Bean", but I might have to start calling him "Butter Ball". :-)

Check out some recent pictures.

I love the tongue!

Brett did buy this giant stuffed elephant (we call him Packie) for me, but both Nermal and Butters have claimed him and I don't have the heart to take him from them. I mean, see?

So cute when he isn't biting you...

Gabby doesn't realize that Butters is sleeping with her. :-)

Though this picture is blurry, it is my favorite we have of Gabby - it captures her essence - curious and super sweet.

Alright, enough with the kitties and onto the food!

What follows are three simple meals - 30 minutes or less, that are tasty when stuffed into a tortilla or taco shell. We really like our tortillas and taco shells...

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and adjust ingredients to your liking.

I serve this on toasted Jewish rye bread with lots of baby spinach.

And finally, here are a couple of other things I've made as of late...

Banana cake! I had some bananas on the counter I've been using for smoothies get a little too ripe on me, so what to do? Make banana bread! Brett and I prefer it to be more "cakelike" than "breadlike", so I just used my Banana Bread recipe but put it in an 8x8 pan and cooked it for an hour instead of an hour and fifteen minutes or more.

I also used all whole wheat pastry flour instead of just part.

When Brett was at the store the other day, they were out of his beloved cookies. I have been in a bit of a baking mood so I decided I would make him some. I just used my Super Yummy Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe and subbed in a mixture of M&M's and Reese's Pieces for the chocolate chips. He hasn't missed his store bought cookies after all...

AND - I was able to get at least something semi-wholesome into his cookies but using whole wheat pastry flour. :-)

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

I don't feel too much like blogging today - I'm pretty tired. We've been staying up late and have had family visiting each of the last few days and it has caught up with me. But I DID wan to make sure that I got some pictures of our new kitty Butters up for everyone to see. He is quite the sweetie and we've had a blast with him so far.

I hope to be back in a day or so - I have some recipes to post!

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

If you look closely, you can see a kitty snuggled up in the blanket. Of course, it's Gabby, not Butters, but it is so cute I couldn't help but share. She is such a photogenic kitty.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Yes, um, I actually made this quite some time ago, but seeing as I've been afflicted with that horrible Lazy Syndrome, I'm only getting around to it now. Many, many moons ago, Jessy from the oh so awesome blog, Happy Vegan Face, posted about a Shepherd's Pie recipe she had made.

I'd never had Shepherd's Pie before vegetarian or otherwise, but who doesn't like mashed potatoes, veggies, and beans? Why not put them together? I know! Great idea! So I decided to make up my own recipe based on what I had around and it was pretty darn good. I think I'm going to try using green lentils in place of beans next time I make this.

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add the veggies and cook for 10-15 minutes or until soft. Add the tomato sauce and black beans and cook until heated through.

In an 8x8 pan, spread the bean/veggie mixture and top with the potatoes.

Place, uncovered, in the oven and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until top is nice and golden.

Enjoy!

Yum, just posting about it makes me want this again, it was hearty, filling, and super tasty. I just wish I had had some green beans or peas to add to the mix. Or broccoli like Jessy used. Mmmmmm, green veggies...

So, in some exciting but completely off topic news - Brett and I are getting ready to welcome a new addition to our home.

A couple of weeks ago, Brett and I went to St. Louis for the weekend to celebrate (belatedly) the holidays with my parents and brothers. I met my first little nephew - Gabriel - and he seemed as scared of me as I was of him. Perhaps when he is older we will both be more comfortable...

Anyway, while we were up there, my parents took our Cocker Spaniel, Sadie, to the vet to have something checked out. While there, they discovered that a kitty had been found very sick in a trash can and was brought to the vet by a daughter of one of the nurses who found him. He was this tiny little orange puff ball who was scared, thin, malnourished, and in need of love and food. Stacey fell in love but was torn - she might have an infant in the house soon and a little kitty and babies don't usually mix. But the kitty was so sweet and unless someone took him, he would be taken to an animal shelter and likely put down because he was a runt and they couldn't guarantee his long-term health. So she asked Brett and I if we might want to take him.

Now, as a little aside, I would love to take ALL animals in need of a home. But we cannot. We live in an apartment and are limited in both funds and space, so we can only have so many critters and still be able to provide a good home with plenty of love. There is a shelter here in Columbia called Second Chance. They don't have a facility, rather, all the animals are put in "foster homes" where they live until they are either adopted or, well, they've lived out their days. They are no-kill. I think this is one of the most amazing organizations I've heard of and I would love to be able to help foster one days.

Anyway, back on topic. While we can't have all the animals that need a home, the more I got to thinking about it, the more it seemed like we had more than enough room for another kitty. I spoke to Brett about it and he agreed that we could go see the kitty at the vet. He knew (as I did) that as soon as he agreed to go see it, we were going to be adopting the cat, whether it had three legs and one eye, it didn't matter, we were going to give this unwanted kitty a home.

So we went to the vet and the nurse brought out this tiny orange fluff ball. He is so cute! He was very shy but took to me instantly. He let me love on him and didn't cower as he usually did. He was just the sweetest little thing. We decided we would call him Peanut Butter (we will call him Butters for short, like South Park :-)) and that he would definitely be welcome in our home.

Since he was so thin and was having some problems with his kidneys, they kept him at the vet to fatten him up and get his insides working a little better. Oh, and they are also going to fix him. EEEEEEK! Word from the vet is that he is really coming out of his shell and is starting to play a lot. They think he is 10-11 months old. He will be ready to come home on Saturday and my parents will be bringing him down. We can't wait!

Except...we have to introduce a new cat into our home and though I've only had to do it once before, it was not fun and was quite a stressful time. So while we are looking forward to him coming home, we are not looking forward to the introduction process. Yuk.

Anyway, that's about all the news I have for now. I'll get some pictures of Butters this weekend and post them for all to see.